Mauricio Velazquez Rodriguez from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute will be the first member of his family to go to college. This senior is noted for his school-wide leadership as the commanding officer in Poly’s Air Force Junior ROTC program and as a two-year captain of the varsity football team. Mauricio also works at night and on weekends to help support his family. Academically, he has excelled while taking the most rigorous STEM courses available at Poly and is today considering enrollment at the University of Maryland College Park, Johns Hopkins, Brown, or Cornell Universities as a mechanical engineering major.